What Lamont Paris said as South Carolina MBB takes down Oklahoma at home

When South Carolina men’s basketball was blown out on the road against Arkansas, coach Lamont Paris said he was disappointed in his team’s fight. He commended the team’s turnaround against Auburn, but ultimately the result was still a loss for the Gamecocks.

On Tuesday, USC’s newfound fight yielded a positive result: An 85-76 win at home against the Oklahoma Sooners. With the win, USC leapfrogged above a last-place SEC tie with Oklahoma and LSU .

Here’s what Paris had to say about the game:

Opening statement

Paris opened up his postgame press conference by congratulating his players on the win, and said it should do big things for their confidence moving forward.

“Good to get back in the win column, and thought I saw some really, really good things from our guys, just in terms of real growth. ... I was happy for the guys. They were really excited to get a good conference win. All of them are good wins against a talented team,” he said. “And, yeah, just build some confidence for those guys as they move forward. Some good performances. ... They need those things. Everyone needs confidence. And these young people, they really thrive when they have confidence, and their confidence is attached to how they play, particularly offensively. So good win for us. And just really excited for the guys.”

Kobe Knox in control

USC senior guard Kobe Knox put up a season-high 18 points and a team-high seven rebounds in the win. Knox, a 6-foot-4 guard, is one of USC’s best athletes and top defenders. Paris said he’s encouraged Knox to take more control on both sides of the ball.

“I had mentioned to him that he’d been getting to the free throw line. I think he had 12 free throw attempts in two games, or something like that. And so it’s a real way that he can help us,” Paris said. “Most of the time we’ve got at least four guys that are going to play around the perimeter out there, and so at some point you need someone to be around a basket. And that can be by way of drive, that can be by way of a post-up, that can be by way of a cut. And he’s done the cutting and the driving to get into those positions pretty well. And then today, he did a really good job of imposing his will physically, as he was really determined to get to some spots in terms of driving.”

“He’s sneaky athletic. It’s just a smooth, effortless athleticism, but he’s really athletic, and those things should bode well for him as an elite defender. He’s a good defender, but I do think there’s another level of defender that he could strive to achieve,” Paris said. “And rebounding, he’s done a good job of that. Early on his defensive rebounding numbers were not particularly good, and so he has done a better job of rebounding too, which, again, with that frame, and he’s got good instincts and identifying where the ball is. He should be a good rebounder, and today was a really good example of that.”

Elijah Strong’s hot start

USC got off to a strong shooting start that carried through the end. The Gamecocks finished shooting 52.2% from the floor and 57.1% from beyond the arc against Oklahoma.

A main reason for the hot start was junior forward Elijah Strong, who went 5 for 6 shooting and totaled 15 points in the opening minutes of the game. Paris credited Strong for consistently filling that offensive spark plug role this season.

“I’d always choose to get off to a fast start than a slow start. It puts you in position to weather a couple of storms, and still have a cushion, handle a couple of things that may not go your way. ... Elijah, specifically, that’s his gift, scoring the ball, and he generally does it in a way where he doesn’t seem like he’s forcing the action or the issue,” Paris said. “Some guys can get shots off pretty easily. Some guys don’t. You need both of those guys. But when he feels good and really gets it going, like he did today ... it’s hard, from a mismatch standpoint, it’s hard to find who’s going to match up with him.”

Shorter rotation

At the beginning of the season, USC was giving all 11 of its scholarship, non-redshirt players real minutes. Against Oklahoma, seven Gamecocks were on the floor for more than five minutes. It comes as a result of Paris slowly cutting his rotation due to injuries and simply only being able to trust a handful of guys to play consistently.

“We’ve been really searching for consistency. And we’ve had three or four guys that are in a group that all net a similar level. They all do different things well, they all have different shortcomings, none of which is better or worse than the other,” Paris said. “So it’s kind of like you’re looking on this particular day, is it this guy? And then in one game, you end up playing a lot of guys, so you get three possessions, and you have three terrible possessions. So it’s kind of not your day. We go to the next guy. He’s kind of sort of okay for three, four, five, six possessions, he’s fine, and then you’re going to another guy. Well, next thing you know, you’ve had 12 possessions to figure out the guy that’s going to have it that day.”

Showing fight

As USC’s “fight” improves, it’ll be key to not drift back into complacency after a win, but Paris said his job can’t be motivating guys to want to compete.

“I have a lot of jobs. I wear a lot of hats. Motivation to compete? I don’t know. I’m not saying motivation is not part of my thing. ... There’s a lot of ways that motivation happens, and they need motivation,” Paris said. “But to to inspire someone to play hard. That is not my job. That is not my job. They have a good job. I would take their job over my job. That is the God’s truth. If someone could make it to where I could do their job, it’s a great job. My job is not to motivate them to compete and to play hard. That’s either who you are, or it’s hard to call yourself a winner if you don’t compete at that level, because that’s where it starts. ... It’s only competitive spirit that allows you to get there. It’s only competitive spirit that allows you to get there. And so we’ve been significantly better in the last two games in terms of our competitive spirit.”

This story was originally published January 20, 2026 at 10:41 PM.